Wierd

[andrewducker]

There's recently been a little fanfare about PlayLouder, an ISP which allows you to legally share music, then sees how much music is shared and pays some of your monthly subscription to the rights owners.

It seems to work by redirecting P2P stuff so that it only works internally, and then scanning the packets to learn what you're sharing.

So far as I can make out, the functionality is the same as a regular ADSL connection + Napster's subscription model.  Except that they aren't actually making the music available themselves, just allowing you to share your own, which means you'll be really stuck to actually find anything even slightly obscure.  They haven't made it clear whether there's any DRM on the music either, which would just make it a lose, lose situation all round.

I can't see any positive side to this _at all_.  Anyone care to illuminate me?

Comments

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I believe* it also allows you to legally DL those labels' tracks from anywhere, thus soothing your conscience.

* drplokta said, when he was telling me about it.

[drplokta]

The positive side is that you can legally download music from Sony (and a few independent labels), which might assuage your conscience and also makes you less likely to be sued. It's nothing like Napster, where you download music from their servers in their DRMed format and you only have access to it while you're subscribing. The functionality is exactly what you do now, whatever that may be -- this just makes it legal. They're not providing music.

The only real downside is that you pay a bit more for your Internet connection -- as far as I can tell, you can download the music from wherever you can find it in whatever format you want, so there's no question of DRM being inflicted upon you. They will be taking some measures to stop Sony music that is shared by their subscribers from leaking outside their own network, but that shouldn't inconvenience you particularly.

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

Obscure? Obscure? If you want legal obscurity wander the web, google a band name to get their record company and download the free MP3s.It's kind of fun.